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Interview: Tyler, the Creator on Golf Wang

Odd Future are attached to their cameras. I spent a chunk of Halloween watching Taco dressed as an old lady—robe, grey wig, rollers and all—scrambling back stage at The Fillmore in South Beach to find his disposable. He was beside himself. If the collective can be noted for anything, it's turning their stalwart use of Tumblr into physical products—releasing mixtapes that have turned into label-distributed full-lengths and bountiful picture posts now into a bound photo book, Golf Wang, that came out this November. Check out our interview with OF ringleader Tyler, the Creator, about the inspiration for the book, punk and his favorite reads.

Why do you guys favor disposable cameras? I don’t use disposables. I have some big Canon shit. I fuck with real shit. The other niggas use that shit, you feel me? I never used them. That’s everyone else. That disposable shit is gay.

Tell me why you like film. I don’t even know. I just like taking pictures. It’s not a film or digital thing, I just like taking pictures as a whole. I just happen to use cameras I have to load film with. It’s not an either/or. I just happen to use those.

You guys have a really big Tumblr following with huge pictures posts. What made you decide to put them into a book? I’ve been taking pictures since I was 15. I fucking just thought it would be cool to just put the photos up.

Do you wanna keep making more books? All the photos in the book, like 80% of them are before, like, we were even famous, or we were even big. Most of those are old, some of them have never even been on the internet. The photos of Earl in there, them shits are old as fuck. And then part two will probably be 2011 and part three will be [the future].

Were there other photo books that inspired you? The thing is, when it comes to video directing and shit, I’m into it because I like doing it but I don’t really know much. I don’t know shit that you would think. People say, Who inspires you to direct videos? I like Hype Williams’ videos and I think Quentin Tarantino makes good films. But like, even with photography, I know Terry Richardson’s work, I know Ryan McGinley and that’s literally about it and that’s just because I’m a big fan of VICE and that’s how I found out about them. Those two dudes, other than that, the photographers who influence me happen to be my friends. I got this camera, I don’t even know how to use it. I still don’t even know what the fuck ISO really is, I just know it brightens shit up.

Do you like working with visuals more than music? I can’t choose anymore. When people ask whether I like making the video to a song or making a song to the video that’s in my head, I don’t know, I can’t choose between either one because they go hand-in-hand. They need each other.

Are you excited about The Internet? That shit is going to be fucking sick. I’m stoked on it because most people, I’m not even gonna say most people, but people who are fans of Odd Future as a collective just know the different sounds and shit, but people who think we’re crazy, rap shit [don't know] I am inspired by music like that.

A couple of weeks ago, you were tweeting about wanting to start a punk band. Do you have any plans to do that? I’m in a punk band. It’s called Odd Future. But I really wanna be in a [rock] band. Rock bands are way cooler than rappers, in general. When people make end of the year lists, I wanna be near Trash Talk and The Strokes or some shit instead of fucking rappers that’s up-and-coming. I hate that shit. That shit sucks.

What kind of other books are you into? I have a collection of shit at my house. VICE . I have a lot of those. Skateboard, Thrasher. I have a lot of Thrashers. Other random magazines from Europe because I like the covers. I was into Goosebumps really heavy when I was younger.

What’s your favorite Goosebumps book? It would probably have to be [a] Choose Your Own Adventure and it’s number 12, The Adventure of the Wicked Wax Museum. That’s my shit. I used to love those. I loved books when I was younger. Barnes and Noble was where I went. Shit was tight.